This page: Queen rides in a '50s Cadillac, and other decorated carnival car pictures from Ceylon.

Photos of a '54 Cadillac and other cars, Ceylon.

This set of four photographs turned up in 2006, in a batch of pictures that I bought online. The first photograph, featuring a smart Cadillac, shows the car used by the Royal party during their Ceylon visit.

The note on the back of this first photo reads .. "The Queen's car, with the Queen sitting in it, passing through Sigiriya, Ceylon, 15th April 1954". The car has also been identified as a Cadillac. Her Majesty can just be spotted sat in the back, with a uniformed driver (plus passenger) sat up front. Note the fitting on the forward top edge of the roof, presumably designed to have a crest fitted on it. The visit to Ceylon was part of a Royal tour of the Commonwealth countries, that took place in 1953 and 54.

1954 Cadillac

Next up is a photo of showing a group of people sat in front of a rakish sportscar, an MG by the looks of it. This picture was included with the others on this page, so presumably shows people who were involved with the Queen's visit in some way. As a side note, from 1972, the country name Ceylon was changed to Sri Lanka.

Decorated carnival / procession vehicles

Finally, two photographs show brightly decorated vehicles that must have taken part in a procession, or carnival, during the Royal visit. The first car looks like an old Humber or Austin (which is it?), with a sizeable construction over the rear passenger seat area. Flags and ribbons abound, also see the little parp-parp horn mounted on the driver's windscreen surround. The car shown in the second image looks even older than the first (both date to the 1930s), this one reminds me of a Standard but no doubt someone can tell me for sure. A really wide construction has been grafted onto this car's chassis, a car that has already led a hard life, judging by the dents in the chrome radiator surround.